Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: This was a wide ranging discussion on many space topics & related issues. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. We talked about many topics and issues on this 2 hour 40 minute program. In the first segment, ITAR reform was discussed and Andrew of the Tea Party In Space in his discussion also advocated for the resumption of manufacturing Plutonium 238. We got caught off but he called back in the second segment. Charles called to advocate for small markets & an incremental approach. He continues working on Microlaunchers. John from Atlanta called to talk about strange lights over Detroit. We had a good time talking about the mysterious Detroit sightings which you can easily see pictures of & find out more if interested with a very simple Google search. John also wanted to talk about our recent advanced propulsion program about warp drive and interstellar physics. If you have not heard that program from Jan. 4, 2013, I strongly recommend you do listen to it. Space budget, economic and sequestration issues came up in this segment as well. We also talked about the bankruptcy sale of special battery company A123 to China and the fact that this includes sensitive military technology. Listeners expressed a variety of opinions about this matter. Perri provided us with this Forbes story on the matter: www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/12/12/china-wins-u-s-loses-in-a123-bankruptcy. I also read a PR statement from a group opposing the sale to China.

In our longer second segment, Andrew called back and we talked about economic issues in congress, SLS, Golden Spike, and building relationships with staffers in congress to better advocate for space. Tim called from Huntsville to tell us about the absurd PETA, Elon Musk and vegetarian issue arising about the food people will eat on Mars. You can read about it at these locations: http://rt.com/usa/news/space-mars-musk-people-595 and http://betabeat.com/2013/01/elon-musk-would-like-you-to-know-i-am-not-the-kale-eating-overlord-of-mars. Based on this story, we got several listener comments on PETA, Martian food, and space nutrition. In fact Doug called to say that he thought early Mars missions would likely be vegetarian just for mass and technical reasons. Our last caller was Perri who wanted to talk about the need to refurbish and bring back to life the excellent Colorado teaching planetarium, the Robert H. Johnson Planetarium in Jefferson County. Perri provided us with lots of good information on this planetarium and its refurbishment needs. She also talked about food consolidation problems in the U.S. and globally, plus a host of other matters, including the plutonium issue which was mentioned in the first segment. Here, she told us about the Rocky Flats Cold War Museum based on The Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant. The museum is also in Jefferson County, CO. For more information, visit www.rockyflatscoldwarmuseum.org. If you want to connect with Perri about the planetarium or any of the other issues she mentioned, you can email her through me.

You can also email all our callers through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog.

Guest: Alan Boyle. Topics: Space news, space policy, budgets and insights. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Alan Boyle to the program. I recommend you follow and subscribe to his blog Cosmic Log at http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com. In our first segment, Alan shared his views on space policy and the presidential candidates, developments and issues with commercial space and crew efforts, and the space vision for BEO. Specifically, we talked about Newt’s proposed policy, American statehood for a lunar colony, the Outer Space Treaty (OST) and Alan’s view that he thought overall Newt’s comments were not that helpful to his campaign. To a lesser degree, we talked about the Romney space policy. Also on the discussion table were large government projects and he referenced a few that seemed better than most such as the Large Hadron Collider and ITER. We also talked about the fact that in the previous administration, having a lunar outpost that eventually was to become commercial was our national space policy up until the new administration cancelled the program. Alan was asked several questions about commercial crew and he referenced comments made by Boeing that the business case for now does not close without government support. We also talked about the gap and the readiness of commercial crew to the ISS. During this discussion, I mentioned what I had heard about Space X and its schedule for flights prior to 2017. During the show, I contacted Space X, got a clarification of what I had heard and read it on air near the end of the program. I appreciate the timeliness of Space X in getting back to me with accurate information so make sure you hear their statement in the last segment. Another topic Alan brought up was international cooperation with costly missions. I asked him about Stratolaunch as he was at the initial press conference. He said “it was like The Band got back together.” Don’t miss his full comments on this project. A listener wanted to know about human rating the Atlas V, Blue Origin, and NASA budget issues. In this context, we mentioned Intrade and Alan told us about the Iowa Electronic Market.

In the second segment, we talked about orbital fuel depots, SLS again, and the politics of these projects. Listeners asked questions about Space X and their projects, and then he had much to say on NASA robotic missions. Toward the end of the program, Alan talked about space leadership & in response to my questions said it has historically come from The White House. We got a call from Andrew of the Tea Party In Space to advocate Newt’s space policy. We addressed additional issues for JWST, its cost, its science value, and its possible crowding out Mars robotic missions planned for the future. Alan referenced Jim Oberg regarding the problems with Russian space hardware and Dave sent in a note about the JWST budget concerns for future astronomy missions and wondered if we were risking too much on one rocket launch.

Please post your comments/questions for Alan Boyle on The Space Show blog URL above. He can be reached through Cosmic Log.